Lost in between the inaugural 2013 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) event and Phil Ivey’s historic ninth WSOP bracelet was the second event of WSOP APAC, the $1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. Washington, D.C. native Jim Collopy nabbed the $69,662 top prize, not to mention the first WSOP of his career.
Collopy did come excruciatingly close to winning a WSOP bracelet once before. In 2010, he finished as the runner-up to Gus Hansen in the WSOP Europe £10,000 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up event, cashing for £178,211 ($274,924). That was the biggest cash of his career, but the country of Australia, his new home, has treated him particularly well. In addition to this victory, he won the AUS $2,250 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2012 Aussie Millions and finished third in the AUS $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six Max event at this year’s Aussie Millions. In his live tournament career, Jim Collopy has now won over $700,000.
Collopy had a sizeable lead on the rest of the final table when Day 3 started, owning 209,200 chips. Minh Nguyen had the next biggest stack with just 122,200. Despite the stacks, though, the competition was tough, with Nguyen, Dan Shak, and Marvin Rettenmaier also gunning for the title.
But competition be damned; Collopy almost went wire-to-wire at the final table, losing the lead for just a short time during heads-up play against Edison Nguyen. Going into the one-on-one match, his lead over Edison Nguyen was fairly narrow, 414,000 to 360,000.
Late in the tournament, Nguyen had a decent lead, 454,000 to 320,000, but Collopy quickly turned things around. The two men got their chips in pre-flop, Collopy holding A♦-A♣-9♠-8♥ and Nguyen showing K♠-K♦-Q♣-T♠. Nguyen picked up a flush draw on the turn when the board came out Q♠-4♥-3♣-6♠, but wasn’t able to pick up that last spade or King to win the tournament. Collopy had doubled-up to 666,000 while Nguyen fell to 110,000.
The tourney was over two hands later. Nguyen was all-in pre-flop with A♣-K♥-T♦-5♦, up against Collopy’s A♦-T♠-9♣-4♦. The flop was good for Nguyen, but the 9♠ on the turn put Collopy into the lead. Only a King would save Nguyen on the river and for a brief moment it looked like he might have had it, but it was the other male face card, a Jack, that was dealt. Jim Collopy won the hand and earned his first WSOP bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific Event #3: $1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha – Final Table Results
1. Jim Collopy – $69,662
2. Ming Nguyen – $43,050
3. Tino Lechich – $30,988
4. Scott Reid – $22,712
5. Dan Shak – $16,940
6. Paul Sharbanee – $12,856
7. Mike Leah – $9,923
8. Martin Kozlov – $7,784
9. Marvin Rettenmaier – $6,207
